


We Can Mourn

by fallingnights



Series: We're In The Endgame Now. [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Kinda, Like post the first 10 mins, Nebula & Tony Stark Friendship, Nebula (Marvel) Feels, Nebula (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Nebula-centric (Marvel), Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Survivor Guilt, Tony Stark Is a Good Bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 08:05:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19146916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingnights/pseuds/fallingnights
Summary: Its the two year anniversary of the snap and Nebula is struggling with Gamora's death. Luckily, she has a friend that knows what she's going through and is here to help.





	We Can Mourn

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Friends! I decided I wanted more Nebula and Tony content since we certainly did not get enough in Endgame. Hope you enjoy!

Death was something Nebula faced her entire life. Her entire life, she had traversed galaxies and left nothing but bodies in her wake. With Thanos, her entire purpose was to help him  bring ~~balance~~ kill half the population of every planet that they visited. After she escaped him, her purpose was killing him and anybody else in her way. She had faced death, she had been death. Nebula had killed thousands of people and never stopped her stride, so she didn’t understand why one person's death was affecting her so much. She didn’t know why Gamora’s death hurt so much. 

So, she went to the one person she knew would understand, who might be able to help her.

Nebula stared at the cabin door, nervously spinning the foil triangle in her hand. Under Thanos, asking for help, having emotions like this would have been a death sentence. Nebula had painfully learned that needing help was failure and failure was unacceptable. But, Thanos wasn’t here. She could do this. Those thoughts thrummed in her head like a mantra as she forced herself to knock on the door. 

“I was waiting for you to do that,” Tony said, pulling open the door. “With how you were standing out here, I was kinda scared you were just gonna bolt.”

Nebula blinked and Tony shrugged.

“I saw you on the cameras but I really didn’t want to push or anything.” 

“Where’s your offspring?” She asked, avoiding the implication. He let out a small laugh, a fond smile gracing his face as he nodded vaguely behind him. 

“Morgans actually sleeping for once, so you actually picked a perfect time to come visit.” He met her gaze, the smile not breaking as he said, “It’s really good to see you.” Nebula didn’t respond instead shoving the small triangle into his hands. He cocked an eyebrow and she looked away, attempting to hide her nervousness. “Let me clear off the table.”  

He gently placed it back into Nebula’s hand before turning and walking into the house. Nebula followed and was immediately surprised by the whirlwind of toys and chaos that seemed to be everywhere. She attempted to follow Tony’s methodical steps through the covered ground as she followed him to the kitchen. 

“Sorry for the mess. No single toy satisfies Morgan anymore and Pepper’s not here to yell at me for not cleaning up, so,” He motioned towards the living room. “we have chaos. This here is all my mess though,” Tony muttered, attempting to move the large pieces of metal off the table. Nebula watched him for a moment, watched him struggle with the piece, before silently taking it from him. He took a deep breath and sat in one of the chairs. “The counter. Sorry, the trapped in space thing really took a toll on the body.” She nodded, and cleared the rest of the table before taking a seat across from him. 

“So,” Tony said, making a goal post with hands. “What’s going on?” Nebula 

“Rhodey said there was going to be the memorial for the victims of Thanos tonight.” She muttered, her finger hitting too high on the triangle, causing it to barely move across the table. Tony grabbed the football and Nebula made her fingers into L shapes.“It’s apparently the two year anniversary of…” She trailed off.

“The Snap.” He finished as the foil football sailed through Nebula’s goal.“One point for me.” 

“Today, Thanos killed Gamora. He killed my sister and called it love.” The little triangle sailed across the room and knocked against the wall, dropping pathetically on the ground. 

“Tell me about her.” He asked, moving to pick it up off the ground. “What was she like?” She knew she didn’t have to answer, Tony wouldn’t push;  he never did. It was so different from everything she had experienced before. Even on the spaceship, when they both really thought they were going to die and all they had was each other, he never pushed.  

“She was awful.” Nebula said, putting up her goal. “I hated her. For the longest time, I hated her.” 

“That’s two for me.” He said, sliding the football to her. “Why?”

“Thanos pitted us against since we were children. He had us fight. Whoever lost was taken and improved, as he called it, and Gamora wanted nothing more than to win.” The football sailed through Tony’s goal. “All I wanted was a sister and instead all I got my eye removed from my head, my brain removed from my skull. Improved. And she just kept winning, just kept beating me.”  

“And here I thought my dad sucked.” Nebula felt her mouth twitch into a small smile. “So what happened that made you not hate her?” 

Nebula shrugged, “I tried to kill her, a lot, but  we somehow became friends and we became sisters.” Tony’s football hit her thumb and dropped to the table. “She even invited me to join the Guardians of Galaxy.” The football sailed through Tony’s goal. They were tied. 

“I declined and decided to dedicate myself to killing Thanos. I snuck onto his ship and tried to kill him. I almost did. He caught me and then he caught Gamora. She was the only one that knew where the soul stone was and he used me to get to her.”

“Nebula-”

“It’s my fault. She took him to the stone so he wouldn’t kill me. He got the stone and I lost my sister.” If she had tear ducts, she would have been crying. “It’s my fault.”

“No,” Tony gave her a soft smile. “It’s not.” 

“I don’t need your pity.” 

“Nebula, I was exactly where you are. Hell, I still am sometimes. I am intimately familiar with the guilt you’re feeling right now.”  Tony stood up and pulled his chair next to her. She didn’t look at him, instead spinning the foil football in her hand. “Your sister choose your life over the stone, Strange choose my life over the stone, and we both lost people because of it. And you know, it wasn’t our choice. We didn’t get that chance, we just have to deal with the consequences.” 

“How?”

He shrugged. “We have to move forward for the people we lost. If we get stuck in our guilt, in our sadness, we can’t live the life they would want for us. We can miss them, we can mourn them, but we can’t get stuck.” Tony paused for a moment.  

“I think we should go to that memorial.”

“Why?” Nebula asked. 

“I think we both have people we need to say goodbye too.” 

Nebula didn’t say anything but gave a small nod. 

***** 

There were pads of sticky notes and bundles of pens going around the crowd. Flowers, a rainbow of sticky notes, and letters were placed on the Decimation memorial fountain in Central Park. A candlelight vigil already had started as they walked up to the fountain. 

Tony gently set Morgan’s carrier on the ground before grabbing and passing Nebula green pad of sticky notes and a pen. 

“Write,” He said to Nebula’s confused look. “Write whatever you want. It could just be her name or maybe something you wish said to her or a goodbye. Write whatever you want.” Tony grabbed his own blue sticky note. 

They stood together for a moment, scribbling down a few words each before pressing them next to each other onto the cold stone along with the hundreds of other people with them. Tony picked up the carrier before he and Nebula turned away, leaving the words simple words and colorful post-it notes behind them. 

 

**_Peter Parker_ **

 

**_Gamora_ **


End file.
